St. Paul projects aim to make city even more bike-friendly

St. Paul plans to make John Ireland Boulevard, Johnson Parkway, Griggs Street, Jefferson Avenue and Charles Avenue more bicycle-friendly before the end of the year.

The projects are advancing as the city prepares for a number of events that will attract bike enthusiasts over the next few weeks.

And while they're all important projects, said St. Paul City Council member Russ Stark, an advocate for alternative transit, he's eager to see the city address a missing link among its various bike routes.

"A lot of our routes just kind of dump you on the edge of downtown," Stark said. "You're on your own to get through downtown."

Those concerns haven't fallen on deaf ears at City Hall. In his State of the City address in March, Mayor Chris Coleman pointed out that 31 percent of 16-year-olds and 77 percent of 19-year-olds had driver's licenses as of 2008. Those numbers were dramatically lower than the 1978 numbers of 50 percent and 92 percent, respectively. With smaller shares of young people driving, the mayor said, bicycle access to key destinations should be a growing public priority.

By the end of September, the city will have a bike plan that includes routes downtown. Coleman has pledged to add more bike lanes throughout the city and expand the Nice Ride bike-sharing program. He hopes to see St. Paul partner with Minneapolis and Hennepin County to connect the Midtown Greenway in the west metro area and the Gateway and Vento Trails in the east metro, though a host of details have yet to be worked out.

Advertisement

In the meantime, the city will finish installing bike lanes this summer on John Ireland Boulevard and Johnson Parkway. Maps of the new bike lanes are online at tinyurl.com/cathedralbikelanes.

BIKEWAY PLANS

On Tuesday, city officials will update the Frogtown Neighborhood Association about the future Charles Avenue Bikeway, which will run for 3-1/2 miles along Charles between Park and Aldine streets. The route will close traffic medians to vehicles at major intersections and ultimately add up to nine traffic circles.

Most of the traffic circles remain unfunded, but median closures or bike "refuges" are still planned this year at Snelling Avenue, Hamline Avenue, Lexington Avenue, Dale Street, Marion Street and Rice Street. Located two blocks north of University Avenue, Charles runs parallel to the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit line.

The plan calls for a wide range of treatments, including corner bump-outs and signage, to turn Charles into a more pedestrian- and bike-friendly street without adding bike lanes.

Meanwhile, city staff have put the Griggs Street Bikeway between Summit Avenue and Minnehaha Avenue out to bid, as well as the remaining work on the Jefferson Avenue Bikeway, Stark said. Both projects are likely to move forward in the late summer or fall.

Advocates would like to see many more projects move forward. From bike racks along University Avenue to snowplowing along winter bike paths, the St. Paul Bicycle Coalition has advocated for 24 different bicycle initiatives, listed online at saintpaulbicyclecoalition.org/projects. A proposal to designate Margaret Street a bicycle boulevard connecting the Bruce Vento Trail on the west to McKnight Road and Ruth Street on the east has received the support of the city's Capital Improvement Budget Committee, which makes recommendations to the mayor's office and the city council.

BIKING EVENTS

A series of bicycle events is on tap throughout the city in upcoming weeks.

On Saturday, the nonprofit organization Gardening Matters will lead a St. Paul bike tour of community gardens, among other events. More information is online at gardeningmatters.org.

Bikers will take over the night Aug. 17 for the NightOwl Classic. The event, in its fourth year, features 14- and 21-mile bike loops through Summit Hill, Cathedral Hill, Hidden Falls Park, Crosby Farm Park and Lilydale Regional Park. The routes have changed from previous years because of construction, and the event will begin and end at the St. Paul Union Depot on Fourth Street in downtown St. Paul. Find more information at facebook.com/NightOwlClassic, and riders can register at NightOwlClassic.com.

On Sept. 8, the 19th annual St. Paul Classic Bike Tour is expected to draw 6,000 riders. The event has added a "King of the Hill" bike race up Ramsey Hill. The event benefits the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota. Find more information at bikeclassic.org.

On Sept. 15, the city will close University Avenue to vehicles between Hamline and Marion, leaving the street to be overrun by pedestrians, bikes and skaters. The event, which mirrors similar "Open Streets" celebrations in Minneapolis and other cities, takes place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. See details at facebook.com/StPaulOpenStreets.

St. Paul Public Works is recruiting volunteers to conduct bicycle and pedestrian counts at intersections throughout the city. The count will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. Sept. 10, with a rain date of Sept. 12. To sign up, email laura.eash@ci.stpaul.mn.us, and include any preference for location or neighborhood.

Meanwhile, the Gateway State Trail between Cayuga Street East and L'Orient Street soon will be closing temporarily. The closure was planned to begin Thursday, but was postponed to a later date that has not been announced. The trail will be closed for several weeks for Minnesota Department of Transportation crews to remove trees and make brush-related improvements along Interstate 35E north of downtown St. Paul.